I have been making Rose’s sourdough for about two years now. I decided to take it to the next level and use a banneton to shape my dough. I’m having the worst problems. If I flout the banneton per the manufacturer instructions to the sourdough does not stick, I wind up with this thick layer of flour on the bread. So I have to spend time gently trying to scrape some of the flour off before baking. This in turns, causes my dough to deflate some. Then when it comes out of the oven, I spend more time scraping flour off. I have tried using less flour in the banneton but then the dough sticks to the banneton which in again, causes my dough to deflate.

What am I doing wrong? Any suggestions would be appreciated. I’ve never used a banneton prior to this.

Use rice flour, and rub it into the cloth. It works better than regular flour. Here is what I do. I put the cloth in the banneton, add some rice flour, and rub it thoroughly into the cloth. Tip the basket upside down to remove the excess rice flour—tap just gently if at all, not very hard. Then I dust the basket again with a very light sprinkling of regular flour—-like you would powdered sugar on top of a cake—not very much. That’s it. The dough won’t stick, and will have just enough flour on top to be attractive.

I bought some of the plastic bannetons and I spray it with Baker’s Joy. Plus, I sprinkle a bit of seminola flour into the basket too, but it doesn’t adhere much to the sides of the plastic. The dough generally falls right out and I haven’t even noticed the seminola flour on the bread.

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I first bought just one in order to see if it worked; I was skeptical, but the sticky dough (68% hydration) released just fine, so I bought three more. When proofing, I use two 1 gallon freezer bags per banneton, one on each end. (But they aren’t as sexy as the cane ones.)

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If error is corrected whenever it is recognized as such, the path of error is the path of truth.

I have willow bannetons, and have to flour them pretty heavily because my no-knead dough is fairly wet if I want good results. If it’s too much flour I just tap on the bread after it’s cooled off and the extra flour falls off.